Down A Hummer
I've over-reacted before but for the life of me I can't find hummingbird baby #3. I don't know whether he's infinitely smaller and just not visible, whether she's been smothered beneath the other two, or whether it's lying somewhere dead on the round (I don't wanna look).
Even when mama comes by to feed, I don't see a third beak. Not good.
However, I both witnessed and captured on film one of the two happy bruisers trying out his wings. As soon as my blog producer shows me how to post video, I will.
As for that Riders in the Storm moment I promised (you guessed right! and wrong!), said producer pronounced it sub-prime so you won't be seeing it (his point being, you can't see it too well anyway). I am hoping he'll like the little wing-beater better.
Meanwhile...let's compare and contrast. From my Hummingbird folder (more than 300 pix and useless little movies), here's mama from March 20th.
These days, mama's omnipresent but hard to spot in the garden, until other birds in the yard get a little too close. Then she flies into the fray.
photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPRAnd below, from April 1st, the ever-dominant sibling #1; very consistent behavior from the first time his beak popped up out of the nest.
No sign of coloration but some wing fluttering, lots of pooping, and what I first thought was spitting! Turns out the creature has an incredibly long thread of a quick-flickering tongue.
photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR7:38 PM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink
